Television and Violent Classroom Behaviors: Implications for the Training of Elementary School Teachers.

Reglin, Gary

Through a survey of 41 North Carolina educators, this study investigated teachers' perceptions of the effects of violent television programs on elementary school students' classroom behavior. The research was designed to be descriptive; it employed a 13-item questionnaire which could be completed in about 5 minutes. Subjects were 34 female and 7 male teachers; 21 were from urban school districts, and 20 were from rural school districts. Findings included the following: (1) 87.8 percent of the teachers agreed that television violence contributed significantly to students' violent behavior; (2) 90.3 percent believed that male elementary students imitated characters in violent TV roles while in school; (3) 70.8 percent felt that parents could lessen the chances of their children engaging in violent behavior by watching television with their children and indicating that violent acts on television are wrong when they occur; (4) 90.2 percent felt that parental screening of television content would help prevent classroom violence; (5) 36.6 percent were unaware of the violent cartoons children were watching; and (6) only 4.9 percent were using cartoons as teaching tools. (JW)